Google is renowned the world over as the foremost search company, but it's also an advertising juggernaut that accounts for a large portion of the ad revenue across the Web. Its AdWords service pulls in billions of dollars per year in revenue, whilst also allowing companies, blogs and sites to advertise, and in a continued attempt to cater to iOS as well as its own Android platform in terms of apps, has just dropped AdWords Express for iPhone and iPad. In addition, the Big G also rolled out YouTube Creator Studio for its iOS-rocking contingency.
Being able to interact with the world in a different way through touch and audible gestures feels like you've been catapulted into a futuristic, science-fiction movie. But what if there was a way to remove the limitations associated with having to bark out voice commands in public and use nothing more than a little brainpower to get things done with Glass? The future is here thanks to London-based company This Place and its new Glass compatible technology.
Although many of Google's big announcements over the past year or so have related to Project Glass, this year's I/O developers conference was all about Android, Android Wear, and the Chromecast, with the search giant also rolling out some new products and services for the home and auto markets. Chromecast, which first hit the scene last year, is not only incredibly cheap, but also highly functional, and at the aforementioned I/O in June, we learned that the Big G was about to add Android Mirroring to the HDMI dongle's repertoire. Today, the company has delivered on that promise, and now, Android-wielding Chromecast users can beam the contents of their display onto their HDTVs.
There are literally hundreds of reasons why a particular device may appeal to one person and not another, but when you strip that away we're all concerned with the privacy and integrity of the data that passes through that device. If your smartphone of choice resides on the Android side of the fence then it could be time to rethink how sensitive data is wiped from memory after a new research has suggested that data removed using Android's native wipe feature can be restored.
Having visually compared Android L with KitKat, we found out that Google is pushing hard to take Android one step further from where it stands right now. But how does it compare to its fiercest upcoming rival, iOS 8? That’s exactly what we’re going to find out, by comparing Android L preview with iOS 8 beta, visually.
The next major version of Android, dubbed as ‘L’ (Lollipop?) was announced by Google at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. Android L brought with it a ton of new changes, most of which are for developers. But the user-facing end got a neat facelift too, and as ever, we took the latest OS from the search giant for a spin on a Nexus 5, and couldn’t help comparing it with last year’s offering, Android KitKat.
Google Glass may have managed to notch up legions of fans thanks to its technical capabilities, but could we about to see the fashion conscious adopt the wearable technology as a statement of style? It may sound a little far-fetched as the product isn't exactly the most aesthetically pleasing piece of kit we've ever come across. However, in an effort to stand apart from other providers of prescription lenses for Glass, Rochester Optical has started offering a line of stylish sunglass lenses that are compatible with Google's eyewear.
This year's Google I/O was undeniably one of the more interesting and fruitful Google gatherings that we've seen for some time. In the middle of the plethora of announcements made during the keynote we managed to get an insight into Project Volta, Google's latest internal crack at singling out a weakness within its Android platform and fixing it. Last year it was Project Butter that stole the limelight by attempting to make animations within Android run at 60 frames-per-second. This time around the Volta team will concentrate attention on various aspects of Android in an attempt to improve battery life. The good news? Early investigations into Android L suggests that the hard work is proving fruitful.
Google's Orkut social network, which has been edging towards the graveyard for quite a while now, is about to be killed off for the greater good, with Google stepping out and confirming that the service would be on September 30th. The site, which has remained somewhat popular in Brazil, has faded amid the emergence of Facebook and Google+, and the Big G has stressed that it would rather pool its efforts into expanding its more established networks like YouTube, Blogger, and the aforementioned G+.
Google mightn't yet have expanded the beta Explorer program of its Glass project across the world just yet, but in an announcement outlining its intention to do broaden Glass's horizons in the future, the search giant also confirmed its roll-out to folks in the United Kingdom. With the Explorer Edition now officially on sale in the UK at a cost of £1,000, though, cinemas are stepping out to to ban moviegoers from wearing them while watching the latest box-office smash, for fear that they may record and subsequently pirate films.
